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Based on texture and mineral composition, the highly weathered al-Jimshan chondrite is classed as an S2-shock stage H4 chondrite. The Bir-Hadi and ad-Dahbubah H chondrites are probably not paired with al-Jimshan, and are here respectively classified as H5, shock stage S3 and H5, shock stage S2.
Several years of cooperative research conducted under the U.S./German Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in helicopter flight control has recently resulted in a successful handling qualities study. The focus of this cooperative research has been the effects on handling qualities due to time delays in combination with a high bandwidth vehicle. The jointly performed study included the use of U.S. ground-based simulation and German in-flight simulation facilities. The NASA-Ames Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) was used to develop a high bandwidth slalom tracking task which took into consideration the constraints of the facilities. The VMS was also used to define a range of the test parameters and to perform initial handling qualities evaluations. The flight tests were conducted using DLR's variable-stability BO 105 S3 Advanced Technology Testing Helicopter System (ATTHeS). Configurations included a rate command and an attitude command response system with added time delays up to 160 milliseconds over the baseline and bandwidth values between 1.5 and 4.5 rad/sec. Sixty-six evaluations were performed in about 25 hours of flight time during ten days of testing. The results indicate a need to more tightly constrain the allowable roll axis phase delay for the Level 1 and Level 2 requirements in the U.S. Army's specification for helicopter handling qualities, ADS-33C.
Several years of cooperative research conducted under the U.S./German Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in helicopter flight control has recently resulted in a successful handling qualities study. The focus of this cooperative research has been the effects on handling qualities due to time delays in combination with a high bandwidth vehicle. The jointly performed study included the use of U.S. ground-based simulation and German in-flight simulation facilities. The NASA-Ames Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) was used to develop a high bandwidth slalom tracking task which took into consideration the constraints of the facilities. The VMS was also used to define a range of the test parameters and to perform initial handling qualities evaluations. The flight tests were conducted using DLR's variable-stability BO 105 S3 Advanced Technology Testing Helicopter System (ATTHeS). Configurations included a rate command and an attitude command response system with added time delays up to 160 milliseconds over the baseline and bandwidth values between 1.5 and 4.5 rad/sec. Sixty-six evaluations were performed in about 25 hr of flight time during 10 days of testing. The results indicate a need to more tightly constrain the allowable roll axis phase delay for the Level 1 and Level 2 requirements in the U.S. Army's specification for helicopter handling qualities, ADS-33C.
Several years of cooperative research conducted under the U.S./German Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in helicopter aeromechanics have recently resulted in a successful handling qualities study. The focus of this cooperative research has been the effect of time delays in a high bandwidth vehicle on handling qualities. The jointly performed study included the use of U.S. ground-based simulation and German in-flight simulation facilities. The NASA-Ames Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) was used to develop a high bandwidth slalom tracking task which took into consideration the constraints of the facilities. The VMS was used to define a range of the test parameters and to perform initial handling qualities evaluations. The flight tests were conducted using DLR's variable-stability BO 105 S3 Advanced Technology Testing Helicopter System (ATTHeS). Configurations included a rate command and an attitude command response system with added time delays of up to 160 milliseconds over the baseline and band width values between 1.5 and 4.5 rad/sec. Sixty-six evaluations were performed in about 25 hours of flight time during ten days of testing. The results indicate a need to more tightly constrain the allowable roll axis phase delay for the Level 1 and Level 2 requirements in the U.S. Army's specification for helicopter handling qualities Aeronautical Design Standard (ADS)-33C.
Beginning with the third year of funding, we began a more ambitious archiving production effort, minimizing work on new software and concentrating on building representative archives of the missions mentioned above, recognizing that only a small percentage of the data from any one mission can be archived with reasonable effort. We concentrated on data from Dynamics Explorer and ISEE 1, archiving orbits or significant fractions of orbits which attempt to capture the essence of the mission and provide data which will hopefully be sufficient for ongoing and new research as well as to provide a reference to upcoming and current ISTP missions which will not fly in the same regions of space as the older missions and which will not have continuous wideband data. We archived approximately 181 Gigabytes of data, accounting for some 1582 hours of data. Included in these data are all of the AMPTE chemical releases, all of the Spacelab 2/PDP data obtained during the free-flight portion of its mission, as well as significant portions of the S3, DE-1, Imp-6, Hawkeye, Injun 5, and ISEE 1 and 2 data sets. Table 1 summarizes these data. All of the data archived are summarized in gif-formatted images of frequency-time spectrograms which are directly accessible via the internet. Each of the gif files are identified by year, day, and time as described in the Web page. This provides a user with a specific date/time in mind a way of determining very quickly if there is data for the interval in question and, by clicking on the file name, browsing the data. Alternately, a user can browse the data for interesting features and events simply by viewing each of the gif files. When a user finds data of interest, he/she can notify us by email of the time period involved. Based on the user's needs, we can provide data on a convenient medium or by ftp, or we can mount the appropriate data and provide access to our analysis tools via the network. We can even produce products such as plots or spectrograms in hardcopy form based on the specific request of the user.
In the Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process a rotating pin tool joins the sides of a seam by stirring them together. This solid state welding process avoids problems with melting and hot-shortness presented by some difficult-to weld high-performance light alloys. The details of the plastic flow during the process are not well understood and are currently a subject of research. Two candidate models of the FSW process, the Mixed Zone (MZ) and the Single Slip Surface (S3) model are presented and their predictions compared to experimental data.
Spectra of the Orion Nebula were obtained with the Midcourse Space Experiment Spirit 3 interferometer from 370 to 2000 cm(exp -1) with 2 cm(exp -1) resolution in a 6' x 9' field of view (FOV) in 1996 November. Lines were detected of [S III] 534.4 cm(exp -1), [Ne III] 642.9 cm(exp -1), [Ne II] 780.4 cm(exp -1), [S IV] 951.4 cm(exp -1), [Ar III] 1112.2 cm(exp -1), [Ar II] 1431.6 cm(exp -1), H (7-6) 808.3 cm(exp -1), H (8-6) 1332.9 cm(exp -1), H (6-5) 1340.5 cm(exp -1), H2(S1) 587.0 cm(exp -1), H2(S2) 814.4 cm(exp -1), H2(S3) 1034.7 cm(exp -1), H2(S4) 1246.1 cm(exp -1), and H2(S5) 1447.3 cm(exp -1). The following abundances were determined from these lines: Ne/H = 9.9 +/- 1.1 x 10(exp -5), S/H = 8.1 +/- 1.1 x 10(exp -6), and Ar/H = 2.5 +/- 0.2 x 10(exp -6). These abundances are all less than solar and confirm that the Sun is overabundant in heavy elements without the need for correction for the composition of interstellar dust. The low sulfur abundance compared with solar is an indication that a significant amount of the sulfur in Orion is in dust grains. The FOV-averaged molecular hydrogen column density is approximately 1.6 x 10(exp 20) cm(exp -2) for an excitation temperature of approximately 670 K and an extinction correction corresponding to an optical depth of 1.5 at 9.7 micrometers. The unidentified infrared emission features at 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3, and 12.7 micrometers, attributable to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, were also detected. A prominent, broad silicate feature centered near 18 micrometer and additional weak features were detected and are discussed.
Major results of the S3-3 Langmuir sweep study are published. Studies show statistics and average density and temperature variation on auroral field lines up to 8000 km altitude. Alfven wave papers were published. Our model of Alfven wave propagation on auroral field lines was successfully extended to handle varying density and magnetic field for the inertial mode. The study showed that Alfven wave can create time-dispersed electron signatures. A study was undertaken to extend Langmuir sweep I-V curves to handle the case of an kappa electron distribution as well as Maxwellian. The manuscript is in preparation. Participated in International Space Science Institute study of Alfvenic structures which resulted in a group review paper. The proposed work was to develop an extended model of Alfven wave propagation along auroral field lines to study electron acceleration. As part of this work, a major task was to characterize density and temperature along auroral field lines by using spacecraft Langmuir sweep data. The work that was completed under this funding was successful at both tasks. Three papers have been published as part of this work and a fourth manuscript is in preparation.
The background electron temperature and density at altitudes between 1000 and 8000 km at invariant latitudes greater than 60 degrees have been determined from swept Langmuir probe measurements from the S3-3 satellite. These plasma parameters are determined by fitting the measured probe current-voltage relation to the expected theoretical response. Statistically acceptable fits are found for approx. 20% of all measurements and do not include measurements within the auroral density cavity. The results indicate that the density varies as an inverse power law with increasing altitude which has a typical value of 10 per cubic centimeters at 8000 km in altitude. The electron temperature shows a slight increase with altitude but is less than 5 eV for almost all measurements. These results suggest that the background plasma outside of auroral density cavities on high-latitude field lines below 8000 km is dominated by cold plasma of ionospheric origin which is at least an order of magnitude more dense than hotter magnetospheric components.
We present an analysis of the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) observation of the intracluster gas associated with the cluster of galaxies surrounding Cygnus A. The dominant gaseous structure is a roughly elliptical (presumably prolate spheroidal in three dimensions) feature with semimajor axis approximately equal to 1.(prime)1 (approximately equal to 100 kpc). This structure apparently represents intracluster gas that has been swept up and compressed by a cavity inflated in this gas by relativistic material that has passed through the ends of the radio jets. The X-ray-emitting gas shows this prolate spheroidal morphology to approximately equal to 1.(prime)2 (110 kpc) from the radio galaxy but is spherical on larger scales. The X-ray emission from the intracluster gas extends to at least 8 prime (approximately equal to 720 kpc) from the radio galaxy, and a second, extended source of X-ray emission (probably associated with a second cluster of galaxies) is seen some 12 prime (approximately equal to 1 Mpc) to the northwest of Cygnus A. The X-ray spectrum of the integrated intracluster gas imaged on the S3 chip (dimensions 8 prime x 8 prime = 720 x 720 kpc), excluding the contribution from the radio galaxy and other compact sources of X-ray emission, has a gas temperature, metallicity, and unabsorbed 2-10 keV rest-frame luminosity of 7.7 keV, 0.34 times solar, and 3.5 x 10(exp 44) ergs per second, respectively. We have projected the X-ray spectra taken from 12 elliptical and circular annuli in order to derive a run of temperature, metallicity, density, and pressure as a function of radius. The temperature of the X-ray-emitting gas drops from approximately equal to 8 keV more than 100 kpc from the center to approximately equal to 5 keV some 80 kpc from the center, with the coolest gas immediately adjacent to the radio galaxy. "Belts" of slightly cooler (approximately equal to 4 keV) X-ray-emitting gas run around the minor dimension of the cavity created by the radio source, while the limb-brightened edges of the cavity are slightly hotter (approximately equal to 6 keV), perhaps as a result of heating by a bow shock driven by the probably expanding cavity into the intracluster gas. There is a metallicity gradient in the X-ray-emitting gas, with the highest metallicities (approximately solar) found close to the center, decreasing to approximately 0.3 times solar in the outer parts. We have used the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium to derive a total cluster mass within 500 kpc of 2.0 x 10(exp 14) solar mass and 2.8 x 10(exp 14) solar mass for constant and centrally decreasing temperature profiles, respectively. The total mass of X-ray-emitting gas within the same radius is 1.1 x 10(exp 13) solar mass. Thus, the gas fraction of the cluster within 500 kpc is 0.055 and 0.039 for the constant and centrally decreasing temperature profiles, respectively.
Three Early Archean spherule beds from Barberton, South Africa, have anomalous Cr isotope compositions in addition to large Ir anomalies, confirming the presence of meteoritic material with a composition similar to that in carbonaceous chondrites. The extra-terrestrial components in beds S2, S3, and S4 are estimated to be approx. l%, 50% - 60%, and 15% - 30%, respectively. These beds are probably the distal, and possibly global, ejecta from major large-body impacts. These impacts were probably much larger than the Cretaceous-Tertiary event, and all occurred over an interval of approx. 20 m.y., implying an impactor flux at 3.2 Ga that was more than an order of magnitude greater than the present flux.
Previous studies of the Re-Os systematics of chondrites have documented considerable variation in the Re/Os ratios of whole rock samples. For some whole rock chondrites, Re-Os systematics display large deviations from the primitive isochron that are considerably larger than deviations in other isotope systems. Possible interpretation of these facts is that the Re-Os system in chondrites is particularly sensitive to post-formation alteration processes, thus providing a useful tool to examine such processes. Significant variations that have been detected in highly siderophile element (HSE) patterns for ordinary chondrites support this conclusion. We report Re-Os isotope data for metal separates from the Ochansk H4 chondrite coupled with abundance data for Ru, Pd, Ir, and Pt, determined in the same samples by isotope dilution. We chose this meteorite mainly because it is an observed fall with minimal signs of weathering, and its low metamorphic grade (H4) and shock stage (S3).
The chemical and physical processes by which spherules form during the condensation of impact-produced rock vapor clouds are poorly understood. Although efforts have been made to model the processes of spherule formation, there is presently a paucity of field data to constrain the resulting theoretical models. The present study examines the vertical compositional variability in a single early Archean spherule bed in the Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB), South Africa, in order to better identify the process by which impact vapor clouds condense and spherules form and accumulate. The BGB spherule beds are suitable for this type of study because of their great thickness, often exceeding 25cm of pure spherules, due to the massive sizes of the impactors. Two main problems complicate analysis of vertical compositional variability of graded spherule beds: (1) differential settling of particles in both the vapor and water column due to density and size differences and (2) turbulence within the vapor cloud. The present study compares sections of spherule bed S3 from four different depositional environments in the Barberton Greenstone Belt: (1) The Sheba Mine section (SAF-381) was deposited under fairly low energy conditions in deep water, providing a nice fallout sequence, and also has abundant Ni-rich spinels; (2) Jay's Chert section (SAF-380) was deposited in subaerial to shallow-water conditions with extensive post-depositional reworking by currents. The spherules also have preserved spinels; (3) the Loop Road section (loc. SAF-295; samp. KSA-7) was moderately reworked and has only rare preservation of spinels; and (4) the shallow-water Barite Syncline section (loc. SAF-206; samp KSA-1) has few to no spinels preserved and is not reworked. Although all of the spherule beds have been altered by silica diagenesis and K-metasomatism, most of the compositional differences between these sections appear to reflect their diagenetic histories, possibly related to their differing depositional environments. Sulfate diagenesis in the Barite Syncline and Loop road sections may account for the loss of spinels.
We have studied the metal-rich chondrites QUE94411 (QUE), Hammadah al Hamra 237 (HH237) and Bencubbin with an emphasis on the petrographical and mineralogical effects of the shock processing that these meteorite assemblages have undergone. Iron-nickel metal and chondrule silicates are the main components in these meteorites. These high-temperature components are held together by shock melts consisting of droplets of dendritically intergrown FeNi metal/sulfide embedded in ferrous silicate glass. The silicate glass component of the shock melt is substantially more FeO-rich (FeO: 30 to 40 wt%) than the prevailing chondrule silicates (FeO less than 5 wt%). Fine-grained matrix material, which is a major component in most other chondritic assemblages, is extremely scarce in QUE4411 and HH237; it has not been observed in Bencubbin. This material occurs as rare, hydrated, and fine-grained matrix lumps with major and minor element abundances roughly similar to the ferrous silicate shock melts (and CI). We infer that hydrated, fine-grained material, compositionally similar to these matrix lumps, was originally present between the FeNi metal grains and chondrules, but was preferentially heated by the shock wave and melted. Other shock-related features in QUE94411, HH237, and Bencubbin include a distinct alignment and occasionally strong plastic deformation of metal and chondrule fragments. However, the existence of chemically zoned and metastable FeNi metal condensates condensates in direct contact with shock melts indicates that the shock did not substantially increase the average temperature of the aggregate. TEM analyses of the FeNi metal droplets embedded in the shock melts show martensitic crystal structures, indicating rapid cooling, essentially quenching, of the shock melts. These findings indicate that the preshock temperature of the assemblage was low. Because porphyritic olivine-pyroxene chondrules are absent in QUE94411, HH237, and Bencubbin, it is difficult to determine the precise shock stage of these meteorites, but the shock was probably relatively light (S2- S3; 5-20 GPa) consistent with a bulk temperature increase of the assemblages of less than 200 C. The higher pressures within this range (i.e. 15-20 GPa) are consistent with the findings of shock produced diamonds in Bencubbin. The many mineralogical, petrological and isotopic (e.g. O and N) similarities between Bencubbin, Weatherford, Gujba and QUE/HH237 have been used to argue for a common origin of these meteorites on a single asteroidal parent body. The findings of this study, which indicate similar shock processing, lend support to this view.
The objective of this research was to better understand the conditions and duration of shock metamorphism in meteorites through microstructural and microanalytical characterization of high-pressure minerals. A) Continue to investigate the mineralogy and microstructures of melt-veins in a suite of chondritic samples ranging from shock grades S3 through S6 to determine how the mineral assemblages that crystallize at high-pressure and are related to shock grade. B) Investigate the chemical, mineralogical, and microstructural heterogeneities that occur across melt veins to interpret crystallization histories. C) Use static high-pressure experiments to simulate crystallization of melt veins for mineralogical and textural comparisons with the melt veins of naturally shocked samples. D) Characterize the compositions and defect microstructures of polycrystalline ringwoodite, wadsleyite, majorite, (Mg,Fe)Si03-ilmenite and (Mg,Fe)SiO3-perovskite in S6 samples to understand the mechanisms of phase transformations that occur during shock. These results will combined with kinetic data to constrain the time scales of kinetic processes. E) Investigate the transformations of metastable high-pressure minerals back to low- pressure forms to constrain post-shock temperatures and estimates of the peak shock pressure. Of these objectives, we have obtained publishable data on A, B and D. I am currently doing difficult high-pressure melting and quench experiments on an L chondrite known as Mbale. These experiments will provide additional constraints on the mineral assemblages that are produced during rapid quench of an L chondrite at pressures of 16 to 25 GPa. Results from published or nearly published research is presented below. Lists of theses, dissertations and publications are given below.
Three-dimensional structural models of the mechanosensitive channel of large conductance, MscL, from the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Escherichia coli were developed for closed, intermediate, and open conformations. The modeling began with the crystal structure of M. tuberculosis MscL, a homopentamer with two transmembrane alpha-helices, M1 and M2, per subunit. The first 12 N-terminal residues, not resolved in the crystal structure, were modeled as an amphipathic alpha-helix, called S1. A bundle of five parallel S1 helices are postulated to form a cytoplasmic gate. As membrane tension induces expansion, the tilts of M1 and M2 are postulated to increase as they move away from the axis of the pore. Substantial expansion is postulated to occur before the increased stress in the S1 to M1 linkers pulls the S1 bundle apart. During the opening transition, the S1 helices and C-terminus amphipathic alpha-helices, S3, are postulated to dock parallel to the membrane surface on the perimeter of the complex. The proposed gating mechanism reveals critical spatial relationships between the expandable transmembrane barrel formed by M1 and M2, the gate formed by S1 helices, and "strings" that link S1s to M1s. These models are consistent with numerous experimental results and modeling criteria.
With 40 ks of Clzandra ACIS-S3 exposure, new information on both the starburst and QSO components of the X-ray emission of Markarian 231, an ultraluminous infrared galaxy and broad absorption line QSO, has been obtained. The bulk of the X-ray luminosity is emitted from an unresolved nuclear point source, and the spectrum is remarkably hard, with the majority of the flux emitted above 2 keV. Most notably, significant nuclear variability (a decrease of -45% in approximately 6 hr) at energies above 2 keV indicates that Chuizdra has probed within light-hours of the central black hole. Although we concur with Maloney & Reynolds that the direct continuum is not observed, this variability coupled with the 188 eV upper limit on the equivalent width of the Fe K o emission line argues against the reflection-dominated model put forth by these authors based on their ASCA data. Instead, we favor a model in which a small, Compton-thick absorber blocks the direct X-rays, and only indirect, scattered X-rays from multiple lines of sight can reach the observer. Extended soft, thermal emission encompasses the optical extent of the galaxy and exhibits resolved structure. An off-nuclear X-ray source with a 0.35-8.0 keV luminosity of Lx = 7 x 10 sup39 ergs s sup -1 , consistent with the ultraluminous X-ray sources in other nearby starbursts, is detected. We also present an unpublished Faint Object Spectrograph spectrum from the Hirhhle Spuce Telescope archive showing the broad C IV absorption.
We present an analysis of the compact X-ray source population in the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068, imaged with a approx. 50 ks Chandra observation. We find a total of 84 compact sources on the S3 chip, of which 66 are located within the 25.0 B-mag/arcsec isophote of the galactic disk of NGC 1068. Spectra have been obtained for the 21 sources with at least 50 counts and modeled with both multicolor disk blackbody and power-law models. The power-law model provides the better description of the spectrum for 18 of these sources. For fainter sources, the spectral index has been estimated from the hardness ratio. Five sources have 0.4 - 8 keV intrinsic luminosities greater than 10(exp 39)ergs/ s, assuming that their emission is isotropic and that they are associated with NGC 1068. We refer to these sources as intermediate-luminosity X-ray objects (ISOs). If these five sources are X-ray binaries accreting with luminosities that are both sub-Eddington and isotropic, then the implied source masses are approx greater than 7 solar mass, and so they are inferred to be black holes. Most of the spectrally modeled sources have spectral shapes similar to Galactic black hole candidates. However, the brightest compact source in NGC 1068 has a spectrum that is much harder than that found in Galactic black hole candidates and other ISOs. The brightest source also shows large amplitude variability on both short-term and long-term timescales, with the count rate possibly decreasing by a factor of 2 in approx. 2 ks during our Chundra observation, and the source flux decreasing by a factor of 5 between our observation and the grating observations taken just over 9 months later. The ratio of the number of sources with luminosities greater than 2.1 x 10(exp 38) ergs/s in the 0.4 - 8 keV band to the rate of massive (greater than 5 solar mass) star formation is the same, to within a factor of 2, for NGC 1068, the Antennae, NGC 5194 (the main galaxy in M51), and the Circinus galaxy. This suggests that the rate of production of X-ray binaries per massive star is approximately the same for galaxies with currently active star formation, including "starbursts."